Thursday, July 18, 2013

Happy 4th Gotcha Day!

Another year has passed, and we're celebrating the 4th anniversary of adopting Buster and Lady! They really are a great and fun addition to our family, even though they drive me nuts sometimes.

Overall, they're doing well, but I can tell that they're senior dogs and are starting to show some age-related problems. In the last year, Lady has injured her shoulder a few times after playing too hard, and the recurring soft tissue injury requires her to be on confinement for a certain amount of time. Naturally she can't stand that, and gets upset with me because she's not allowed to play and has to rest. She still has an insane passion for balls, sticks, frisbees, and anything else that can be chased, but she does tire out a little faster sometimes, and I think she might be developing some minor arthritis in her joints. Buster's been suffering from periodic flare ups of a pinched nerve in his neck, and when he has problems we have to put his doggy neck brace (that our vet showed us how to make using a towel - it's pretty neat!) to help stabilize things so he can get some relief.

Buster's still as snuggly as ever, and like I said earlier Lady still enjoys playing! They love to go for car rides, sleep, bark at the neighborhood dogs and assorted wildlife, eat, and come to us for a good scratch behind the ears. They're much better about leaving Judith's toys alone, but they're not as good about leaving her food alone. Buster in particular will follow Judith around anywhere if she has food in her hands, and she's also prone to toss him things because she thinks it's funny (we're working on that with both of them, and this is the major reason why she doesn't get anything that could be toxic to them unless they're in a separate room). I am very pleased that they are tolerant with her, and patient with me as I work with Judith to treat them with respect.

We truly enjoy having them as a part of our family, and are blessed to have 2 great dogs!